IS PARIS BURNING [Paperback]

Larry Collins (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket Books (1973)
• ASIN: B00125Q54W
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,332,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars entertaining history, July 23, 2011

By 

Jeremy Davies (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Is Paris Burning (Mass Market Paperback)

A fascinating fictionalised history: a collection of accounts of the liberation of Paris from the Nazis in 1944. Collins and Lapierre manage to string together a range of different narrative foci, using a kind of ficitonalised interior position in conjunction with documented history of the time. There are certain moments of privlege, and certain moments of exclusion, but a gripping and often touching read is the end result. You get the 'high end' of the story, with de Gaulle and Patton etc, but also many ordinary anecdotal stories, which are often the most interesting, and devastating. Many of the internal conflicts within the allied forces are laid bare for those that thought this was purely a 'them and us' kind of thing.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No, Thank God it isn't!, May 26, 2009

By 

Maximiliano F Yofre "Maxi" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Is Paris Burning (Mass Market Paperback)

The dreadful question "Is Paris burning?" was put by Hitler himself to the German commander of Paris.
It anticipated the mad politic he will follow in the last year of WWII: burn it all, destroy it all (enemy or German alike).

The authors of this book had done a great work performing a very readable and entertaining piece.
They apply the technique of interviewing key witness, ranging from public figures to almost unknown particulars, from Allies military thru Resistance members, from Diplomats to German military. All of them have their saying and express their viewpoints unrestricted.
The collective memories of the witnesses generate an enormous "collage" of the period.
Collins and Lapierre take this huge mass of information to produce a coherent, ordered, dynamic and griping story that keep the reader going on.
An excellent 1966's film of the same title with an all stars cast is done based on this book.

This is an informative book commendable for anyone who is interested in WWII history or in the curious and dangerous events that endangered the existence one of the most beautiful Capital Cities of the world.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.